I have a question for all you enchanters out there. I have been trying to get through the Caldera old mines, and a couple of the creatures there zap me with a drain attribute spell, and I'm suddenly unable to move because I am encumbered.

So my question is, I have bought a fortify attribute spell and intend on enchanting a ring so that I can counter this weapon, but what attribute do I fortify - strength or endurance? The little box that tells me my status just says drain attribute, so I can't tell, except that I can't move around any more!

Also, is it worth it to spend 30,000 for only about 30 seconds of fortifying that attribute? Because it seems that once you are zapped and the counter-spell wears off, you are STILL unable to move anywhere.

Andy, what you need is a RESTORE attribute (not fortify). Right click to bring up your inventory and stats screen. Any of your stats in red need to be retored. If you are wearing clothing or armor which is enchanted with a fortify spell it helps to take it off to see what your true stats are. Then restore them and put your clothes back on.

If you are getting encumbered it is most likely your strength attribute that needs to be restored. It is worthwhile to buy all the restore spells for your main attributes. I haven't bothered with fortify spells or potions for anything. You don't need to enchant anything with the retore spells. Just use and reuse as often as you need.

Yikes, Rowan - I just realized that it is probably my enchanted bow I was using that was draining my strength, and I'm glad to know that I need the restore spell! So I don't think I need to take off my clothes after all

If I keep using that bow, does it make sense to enchant a piece of clothing or a ring with fortify strength? Otherwise I would have to keep casting that spell in the middle of battle. Or maybe I should get rid of the bow?

I don't recall any weapons other than a cursed sword or two that cause a negative enchantment to the user (although I could be wrong). If you did a "home brew" enchantment on a bow to damage attributes "on strike" it would not work, since that is not in Morrowind's scripts-It wouldn't do anything. Now, if you placed a similar negative enchantment "on use" that might be a different story. In which case I would trash the bow and get a new one. You will come across a gazillion of them eventually anyway... If you really like using a bow one of the best tips I ever came across was to enchant an exquisite belt or ring with the "Bound Bow" spell. That way you have close to the equivalent of a Daedric bow with you whenever you put on the belt or ring. When you don't need it just take off the article and Viola! The bow is gone AND there is no extra weight... Another advantage is that you don't need to repair a Bound Bow. You simply un-equip the enchanted belt or ring, put it back on and bango, the bow is like new!

Oh and another perk to the Bound Bow enchantment is that when using an exquisite belt or ring you will have enough "enchanting points" left over to give the article a buffer enchantment to increase maybe your agility or strength...

Thanks for your good advice. I looked up the bow I was using,which is the Swift Bow of the Forest and has a drain endurance of 10 pts, but it also has a fortify marksman, jump 5 pts, and fortify agility 10 pts. And that is constant effect. So I ended up buying a restore endurance spell and enchanting a ring with fortify endurance, and I think that should fix the problem. We'll see. It may conflict with the belt I have to wear while using the Boots of Blinding Speed which has a dispel magic effect, if I remember correctly. But I don't think I'll wear the boots and use the bow at the same time very often, so it may work out.

The Bound Bow sounds great, and I may switch to that too. I am in the process of making large sums of money from Creeper so I can do this. So I'll see what works out better. I have bought the Bound Bow spell already.

Then I will probably either return to the Caldera mines and see if I can be more successful there, or else I will head over to the Azura Shrine for the Azura's Star, which looks like a wonderful gem. Lots to do!!!

WOW, that's one bow I don't think I came across. Either that or I just sold it right away because the benefit enchantment doesn't seem to be worth while compared to the negative effect. Glad you have things working out